


of myths and legacy

by skyqueenclarke



Series: children of desert, born to reach the sky [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, Other characters mentioned - Freeform, spoilers for TFA and episode VIII speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2015-12-21
Packaged: 2018-05-08 02:42:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5480246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skyqueenclarke/pseuds/skyqueenclarke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There’s a pilot full of power that brings them hope once again and this has all happened before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	of myths and legacy

**Author's Note:**

> SPOILERS for The Force Awakens
> 
> I believe Rey is a Skywalker, and this is explicit in the fic.

_the beginning of a legend_

 

They all hold their breaths, waiting, for destruction or victory. Somewhere, there’s smoke from earth torn apart, pieces of good worlds, full of good people that were just trying to keep this galaxy peaceful.

(and even more than millions of voices had all cried out in terror just to be suddenly silenced)

A boy that used to be a soldier it’s telling them what they can do to make this right, and their best pilot trusts him, so that’s enough. It’s also a rescue, a boy searching for a girl he knows in his heart.

(a princess, maybe, or no, that’s a different story)

They’re a rebellion almost torn apart, all their allies destroyed, just an old smuggler, a tired general, and a missing master, that their maps just can’t find.

Giving up would be easier, and still they fight, because it’s what rebels do, and they’ll take destruction before they accept surrender.

Not even their losses seem to matter when victory comes, and even the First Order must be able to hear their cries of joy, their thanks to their best pilot, to a broken, but alive, boy-soldier and to the girl, so beautiful, so full of strength, that challenged them all.

The stories spread fast about her, from Han Solo’s best friend and then gaining a life on their own, the stories of this girl who escaped all on her own, Han Solo’s protégée, the Falcon’s new pilot, the one who fought Kylo Ren and _won._ The girl who was the first since Skywalker himself to hold a lightsaber properly, to fight the darkness and reach into a power none of them can understand.

The girl herself doesn’t celebrate their victory, or hears their stories. She and General Organa haven’t left the spot near the Falcon, embracing and mourning. For them, there was no victory.

(there’s a tragic lesson there, even if they don’t know it yet, that Skywalkers shape the world, but will always be a little apart from it, trapped in a much greater and sadder story)

 

 

 

_the story goes like this –_

 

War is ugly and terrible, full of death and destruction, and the innocent seem to suffer the most. It gets hard to fight, sometimes, when all seems pointless, when even their best warriors are shown to be just human and frail.

But-

There’s a warrior, and he is so strong and powerful, different from the others, for he feels everything with the strength of twin suns and he gives them hope, he who was once a nobody from a desert planet, they look at him and think _he’s the best of all the Jedi, the hero with no fear._

_that was before, of course, before fire and blood but sill-_

There’s a princess and she’s strong and full of life, a beacon of light like the people whose name she carries could never be. She tells them _we will win_ and she survives dark lords and treacherous generals - her planet is gone but she still tells them, unbreakable, _we will win this fight,_ and they believe her.

There’s a pilot who saves the princess and brings her home, who takes her orders, and destroys the enemy’s weapon. He stands tall with his friends, blue eyes kind, no fear in sight, and tells them _anything is possible._ He leads them through the air, reckless and with no limits, and when he leaves it’s to return more powerful than ever, to finally win them this fight.

(there’s a child too, powerful and good, that they believe will carry on their mission, that will help keep the peace that they fought so hard to find. But that child doesn’t want the name or the destiny chosen for him, so they can only whisper his name and hope)

_And then-_

There’s a new pilot, a new girl, that takes their map and the smuggler’s ship, who goes to find their master and save them all once again. She’s kind, she’s strong, she’s a thousand other things they all whisper, hope relighting their souls - she’s more powerful than their darkness and she has come to give the general new life and to bring the master home.

(she’s lonely, really, and still a little lost in this world, torn apart so young from the only people who could understand, and in that way, too, she’s just like the others)

 

 

 

_an intermission_

“I don’t think I can do this”, she says, quiet, part of her hoping he won’t hear. Finn smiles at her, kindly, takes her hand, like he did the first day they met, and she almost laughs.

“If there’s one thing I know, Rey, is that you can do anything”, he wants to say more, she thinks, but sees somebody behind her, and leaves, with a final smile. He believes too much in her, she thinks.

She doesn’t have to look to know who is behind her.

“I’m just a girl”, she turns, then, and he’s smiling at her, but his eyes are sad.

“You’re Skywalker”, he says, resolutely, and it still makes her shiver, knowing what that carries, knowing she’s part of it. “You’ll never be ‘just’ anything”.

She imagines, that, in another world, those words would’ve sounded with pride, but it’s a sad reality, the way he says it.

“They’re all counting on me”, no matter what he says, even when the Force runs through her, and she feels its power, it’s hard to believe she won’t be taken and torn apart by the darkness, like the ones before her.

(in the beginning, Luke had watched her, smiling at learning what she could do with the Force, and his face held heartbreak - she knew, then, that Ben must have been just like her in the beginning)

She hears his first reply, the one he doesn’t dare say out loud. _They were counting on me too._

“I know. If you makes you feel better, I think this would all be just as hard if nobody was counting on you”, he says almost like a joke, and he has a smile that it’s quite familiar. Not like Han’s, though similar, but maybe like someone from an old memory, a man with a scar above his eye that had helped her escape a sandstorm.

(or maybe, just like hers)

“One thing I can assure you”, he says, suddenly serious, and it’s incredible how much he resembles his sister in that moment, “Running away won’t make it better”.

(that’s the one thing she’s sure of - from the moment they met in that island, he never felt weak to her, but when she saw him for the first time with the General, it became clear that a part of his soul had been missing)

“So we fight, I guess”, she says, holding her grandfather’s lightsaber in her hand. He takes it from her, gently, puts it back on her backpack.

“No, we face it head on. And them, if all else fails, we fight”.

Luke Skywalker had been a hero in the legends she heard on Jakku, and, in most of the stories, a fighter. But he told her how his master had said _this weapon in your life,_ and how he threw it aside and faced the Emperor with his head held high.

She’s not sure she’s capable of forgiveness and love the way he is. She’s not sure she’s capable of facing Snoke and Hux and specially Kylo, and feel anything but anger.

(she remembers meeting Kylo Ren, all covered in black, seeing him take off his mask, and thinking _you’re just a boy,_ realizing he just wanted to be special. Funny, in a way, because that’s the one thing she never asked to be)

Luke puts his hand over hers, and smiles. She can feel Leia’s familiar presence, not far away, smiling at the two of them. Somewhere, Finn and Poe and dozens of other pilots are getting ready to fight.

She’s not alone anymore. That’s something.

(that’s everything)

 

 

 

_so they keep fighting_

 

The Resistance survives, still, and they know it’s not just her, but sometimes, it’s hard to remember.

She shines, the light personified, and their eyes follow her. Standing with Master Skywalker, found at last, and General Organa, stronger than she’s been in a long time, she feels right at home at the side of legends. They look powerful, ready to take all the darkness by themselves.

(secretly, sometimes, some of the Resistance members think it’s not right for people to have this much power – Kylo Ren is just one reminder on how things might just go wrong)

But, still. Rey, dressed in white, a lightsaber on her hand, and a powerful glint in her eye – it’s quite a sight. The Resistance has many members, some who have done a lot more for it than this girl, but there’s the way the world moves when she commands, the way the Force talks to her and the way she talks right back.

It makes you believe in something like miracles.

God knows they’re going to need one.

 

 

 

_a clash of light and dark_

 

This has happened before.

There’s Skywalker blood, always, at the center of everything, and a dark master. A red saber at the hands of a broken man, as he stares at a powerful spirit, that still hopes, despite everything, in the power of light.

But this is a different story.

Their mouths are full of blood, their hands hurt, their breaths shallow. He’s still trying to make himself bigger and stronger than anyone that has ever and will ever share his blood.

Rey tries to focus, tries to keep herself upright, refuses to let him see her weak. Snoke is there, near, his presence maybe larger than the both of them.

It doesn’t matter. The Force has decided that this is not the moment to end this fight. The way it separated them on that snowy planet a lifetime ago, it separates them now.

 _If this is what you truly choose, I don’t care_ she thinks, knowing he can hear her, because she cannot be Luke, and he cannot be Vader, and this story will need to find another resolution. _But, by the Force, don’t let that thing make you a slave._

Words have history too, and those are more powerful than most.

She feels his darkness and it burns into her soul, even if part of it calls to her, and Rey wonders if this will always be their history, being called to the Dark, then to the Light, destined to fight their own blood until one side triumphs.

 _Wouldn’t it be something,_ she says, to Kylo ( _Ben_ ), Luke, Leia and anyone who will listen, _if the story of the Skywalkers wasn’t such a tragedy, just once?_

No one has any answer to that.

 

 

 

_but, still, there’s hope_

Stories are powerful, and those of the desert know this more than most.  

(the desert, they say, can take anything you own, your sanity and your name – but it can’t take your stories, specially not those you pass on)

So this is a story, and it starts with a slave and a queen, or maybe with two children, torn apart, that find each other again, or maybe with a droid, a boy-soldier and an old ship.

It starts with a child, always, lost and alone, that’s meant for more than the endless desert, and the world used to be easier, before these children, but maybe that was the problem, that there couldn’t be balance without the fight.

There’s love, she supposes – through all the pain, the darkness, and the bad choices, there’s always love and family and maybe it is a endless cycle of losing each other, but maybe it’s about finding each other too.

No matter what, Light wins, because it must, and if it doesn’t with her or Ben, it will eventually.  Maybe, if she can learn to forgive, he can learn to change – either way, she can’t escape anymore, and Luke was right, of course. They have to face it, head on, for one last battle.

 _Be brave, and don't look back,_ someone in her heart says. No matter what, there used to be a lonely girl in a desert that she can never be again, and maybe Ben Solo will never be again – but they can both learn, maybe become something else entirely and change the story.

Maybe, just maybe, they can make it a happy one after all. 

**Author's Note:**

> My children. I just want them to be happy.
> 
> Follow me on tumblr: skyqueenclarke.tumblr.com


End file.
